Minneapolis Garage Rental

[Jon Loca]

I'm going to be renting out a 2 car garage in Minneapolis to someone other than one of my current tenants (current tenants didn't want to pay extra for the garage). I'm curious if anyone has experience doing this in Minneapolis and can provide some guidance. My questions are should I run a background check, do I get a security deposit, and what type of contract / lease agreement should I be using? 

[Tim Swierczek]

@Jon Loca you absolutely want a lease.  Can you imagine the nightmare of not having one?  What happens if the stuff is stolen, the garage is damaged, the person stops paying, etc.  And yes you also want a damage deposit large enough to motivate them to clean out the garage or to cover some damage.   Yes, you want a background check.  You don't want to rent your garage to someone who has proven they won't pay or has been convicted of cooking meth.  I don't know the type of lease but I would suspect a mini-storage lease would be a good place to start.    I recommend checking with @Brad Schaeppi to get his opinion.